It wasn’t surprising that the Kansas Senate voted down a bill Thursday that would have expanded gaming. And from Wichita and Sedgwick County’s perspective, it’s just as well — as the bill would have allowed only slot machines at Wichita Greyhound Park, rather than the full-service local casino that opinion polls and area nonbinding votes have shown the public wants. But now, lawmakers are still faced with the question of how to cover their future spending obligations, including a court-ordered increase in school funding. If not gaming, then what?
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
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29 Comments
“If not gaming, then what?”
Phillip, I’ll tell ya “what” according to my lights. You can expect no workable solution this session. You can expect republican whining and democrats’ handwringing at the r’s whining. You can expect no leadership or statesmanship.
You can expect lots of finger pointing with no listening and no answers other than “they started it”. You can expect kansas voters to return the whole looney bin to office.
You can expect governor leadership to do nothing.
You can expect the Koch mouthpieces, the ‘mericans for prosperity and anti tax payers network to ratchet up the TABOR talk. You can expect bob corkins to say school choice is the answer. You can expect the Kansas Chamber of Commerce to ask for lower taxes.
You can expect governor leadership to do nothing.
You can expect more bashing and shooting at the kansas supreme court. You can expect a special session where the r’s will get their control of the courts legislation passed. And it will pass without a solution for school finance. You can expect them to change the subject.
You can expect governor leadership to do nothing.
The cons in this state will not be happy as long as the judiciary remains as the buffer between insanity and sanity.
I wonder if any of them read Sandra Day O’Connor’s comments about us edging closer to a dictatorship as legislative bodies attempt to kill or at least neuter the judiciary.
You can expect kansas to follow congress in the attack on the judiciary.
You can expect the expected in ks.
Why does the Eagle want gambling so much? Even with gambling there is going to be a tax increase just not in an election year. That tax increase will be even greater if gambling is expanded in Kansas.
The Eagle will also lose revenue when businesses close their doors and they do not advertise in the paper any more.
The article the other day was a good one asking the question about the victims. It appears that there is no one thinking about them. Families will breakup and children will end of homeless or in foster care. Why does the Eagle support that?
Good predictions ksgirl – I think the out-of-town gambling interests’ investments in our legislators has paid off.
Ksfarmgrrrl: Excellent post and thought provoking. Should be boxed in a black border on the EAGLE’s editorial page this Sunday morning.
I for one will shed no tears at the death of expanded gambling. Legalized gambling as the solution for various ills is the biggest lie ever sold to gullible legislators and taxpayers.
The economic benefits, other than getting some other poor sucker to voluntarily pay taxes and enrich out-of-state developers, are outweighed by the other jobs and business lost as dollars flow to unproductive use in casinos. In addition, the local courts would be flooded with the flotsam and jetsam of out of control gambling and the theft, alcoholism and family violence that will inevitably follow. Will the developers pay for those costs? of course not.
As to paying for schools, you’ll have to raise taxes. Those are facts. I suggest you start with the justices of our Court, who’s Montoy decision is the most aggregious case of judicial legislating I have ever had occasion to read.
…and right on cue, GMC70, spouting criticism of the judiciary and advocating judicial reform. I guess his response could have been expected.
I am no fan of gambling. But I do think it is interesting that GMC70 trusts people to do the right thing when carrying a concealed weapon, but he CAN NOT trust those same people with their paychecks at a casino! Whew. Sure glad gun daddy is here to look out for us.
Why is the “will of the people” an ok argument for guns, but not for gambling? It would be horrible if our “local courts would be flooded with the flotsam and jetsam of out of control”…shooters? And who would pay for the “family violence that would follow.” The gun makers?
I think this is funniest of all:
“The economic benefits (snip) are outweighed by the other jobs and business lost as dollars flow to unproductive use in casinos.”
Well damn, why didnt I see that. It is SO much better to lose those dollars out of state and out of region than to an “unproductive use in casinos”.
I see how that would be good for us, for the revenue to go elsewhere, while those same gambling fools still live here, and we still pay for the social problems.
Your inconsistancy leaves me breathless. But we all know one thing for sure, IOKIYAGMC70.
“…out of control gambling and the theft, alcoholism and family violence that will inevitably follow”
Did I miss something? Does gambling cause alcoholism?
What about drug abuse, murder and of course, the inevitable jaywalking?
GM is saying that gambling is the root of all evil? I must have missed that one in sociology class.
dammit raptor, it was in the chapter right after “all ills begin with the courts”.
Gambling exists whether we like it or not. If Wichitans go to OK or elsewhere to gamble how is that different from them doing it here?
The gambling idea without Wichita isn’t going to work. If Sedgwick County and interests here pushed the plan to the state, it would happen. Probably will in the near future. The dog track interests can’t be the force of it. They want too many slot machines. Dog tracks and slots is a bad idea. If a casino had a dog track, a little better. I’m not big on dog racing.
Why not a “destination casino” in the county. ONE! We have Phil Ruffin, local Billionaire gambling developer. Whoever comes up the right casino plan and it benefits the county. Entertainment and jobs. Another creation helping to bring more tourism to this area.
Addicted, some are to guns, alcohol, tobacco and drugs. Many can gamble and not bankrupt themselves.
How the state disperses gambling money recieved is always going to be a trick.
What else can the state do for revenue..we need to elect new politicians who can create a budget that has some tax increases and finds revenue in legitimate ways.
There is nothing that wrong with the gambling idea. It was wrongly promoted and a flawed plan excluding Wichita. I don’t need to gamble, it would be something to do in a “exciting” building, maybe.
Some will play with their guns, drink too much, smoke cartons or dope up. I don’t need those things. Tax the sin’s of course, a little higher all the time.
Phil Ruffin has enough money.
I think it’s great. I didn’t care if they passed it or not, but now that it looks like that it will probably never pass with the current crop in the Senate, it forces us to think outside the box and maybe do radical reform in this State to find the alternative to gambling tax revenues.
The gambling investment world is only for certain kinds of people. It’s not for everybody to do business in that kind of environment.
It’s more to me, someone create a casino in Sedgwick County, possibly downtown and local ownership sounds more appealing than an out of state gambling group.
Ruffin needs to drop the dog track and slots idea here. Try to promote a full casino and draw something up.
The casino shouldn’t be placed over the river either.
What in the sam hill is OKIYAGMC70.???
Ksfarmgrll and I disagree on this one. I’ve given you my position; I’ll stand by it. And I won’t need to be a smartass to support it.
Who benefits? The developers, perhaps the state in terms of revenue, offset by the aforementioned social costs. You may argue that’s a fair trade, I’m not sure it’s so. Certainly the idea that Kansas will have a “destination casino” is ridiculous; I love my state, but thousands will NOT flock to Kansas to gamble.
Using it “to pay for schools” is an old budget parlor trick. Dedicating certain dollars for specific spending is meaningless; dollars are fungible. Dollars that come from gambling simply means that legislators may offset dollars from the usual sources that would have otherwise been spent on education and divert those funds to other things. There is no guarantee of increased school funding, even if that is a desirable outcome (That’s another subject for another day, however).
And talk to the folks north of Topeka about the explosion of social costs after the casino’s arrive. If we must have it, I’ll gladly let some other part of the state have it. Count me a NIMBY on this one; I have to live here.
And remind me again how it is that courts are somehow immune from criticism? Did I miss that in civics class? Are they magical? Superhuman? Above reproach? Even if you agree that more money should be spend on schools (and perhaps it should), Montoy is a terrifying shot across the bow on the independence of your elected representatives by a body with few checks in place to restrain them other than their own sense of restraint. Read the decision (I’d bet dollars to donuts that ksfarmgrrl hasn’t); the KS SC is legislating. I defy you to call it anything else. The real issue in Montoy isn’t school funding: it’s, ultimately, the continued relevance of elected government.
Finally, ksfarmgrrl speaks of the “will of the people.” First, Montoy has nothing to do with the “will of the people”; courts are generally immune from such considerations (as they should be). As to whether casino gampbling is the “will of the people” or not, well, the people spoke, through their elected representatives. That’s the way a republic works. Ksfarmgrrl apparantly only believes that the will of the people counts when it is the same “will” as hers.
All that said, my guess is that ksfarmgrrl is an excellent conversationalist; I’d like to meet her at some point. We’d agree on probably nothing; but that’s OK. This is America, where she has the right to be wrong. I’d be happy to buy her a beer and sit and discuss.
OKIYAGMC70 is code GMC
(a knowing wink to Farmgrrl……and everyone who isn’t GMC)You’ll figure it out.(maybe)
Don’t anybody tell him.
Welcome OUT of the gun forum GMC. I suspect that is what drew you to posting.
Now I knew you were in love with yourself in there ya don’t have to come prove it here too!
“If not gaming, then what?”
Just let the Kansas Supreme Court decide. After all, they seem to want to substitute their judgement for the legislature’s.
JR -
It’s fun, I know. I post on subjects I have strong feelings on; ignore those I don’t.
It’s not a pissing contest, it’s sharing thoughts.
And I frankly don’t care enough about the “secret code” to lose any sleep over it. So keep your parlor game. Good to see you again.
Dang I gotta post as to the gist here later. For now I just couldn’t resist GMC.
This one is gonna be FUN KFG!
Lock and LOAD!
Just keep on reading the Eagle the week before election and vote for anti gaming representitives.I have only so many spare dollars. I can either let my wife donate them to gaming enterprises or I can buy more steaks, computers and house payments.
Yes, you capitalist fat-cats ingratiate yourselves! You will drown in your own greed, and it shall be your annihilation!
My applause too KFG. That post was great.
Hi again hegel. I post late too. I guess I will be running into you alot! There was another poster who hit all the threads late. But I haven’t seen him lately.
Promised to get to the thread.Well, I know that gambling brings with it all kinds of ills. It can be a terribly addictive destrutive force. The lure of big gains for little investment can be a powerful lure for the desperate. And this state, economy, and nation are ever seeming to create desperate people. I wish it were otherwise.
One does not have to travel far from Kansas to seek gambling and the faint hope of riches that it offers. We have the lottery here. Casinos are available within less than a few hundered miles for any Kansan.
Perhaps the best answer is to allow casinos in state, run by the state, as has been proposed. A careful eye would need to see that the ills of gambling were addressed by the profits of these casinos. But ultimately people are going to gamble. Better I think then that we keep their and our bets, and the house, local.
In gambling, the house wins 99% of the time. The only losers are the “get rich quick” capitalists who despise hard work.
comrade.
Somebody find the damn fainting couch quick! Joe williams hit the nail on the head. :)
“it forces us to think outside the box and maybe do radical reform in this State to find the alternative to gambling tax revenues.”
I totally agree joe. There have to be better funding mechanisms, and if no current model works, let’s see a little kansas ingenuity and create new models that work for us.
That would be a far better use of governmental energy than sex policing.
Phillip…ever hear of cutting spending? Oh yeah, you’re all for cutting spending until the actual, cuts.
Everyone seems to be overlooking the so called “Porn Tax”, HB 2680, currently under careful study in the the House Tax Committee. With a slight modification, it has major potential to solve our funding issues.
The Constitutionality of Sex Toys and a Solution for Kansashttp://theflyoverzone.blogspot.com/2006/03/constitutionality-of-sex-toys-and.html
Gambling is going to happen anyway. Not on a small scale but a big scale- legal or not. I can log on to any number of casino and sports betting sites right from this computer and gamble all I want. So the question is not whether people will gamble but whether the state would like a piece of the action.
A csino is as close as the computer you are using! You don’t have to drive anywhere to gamble.
So True KevBut my wife doesn’t do computers.
YET!
I have shares of a farm for sale for any HARD CORE high stakes gamblers out there. I bet even the devil wont take the over/under on rain!